100 orgasms a day: Woman"s rare disorder sees her climax for up to eight hours a day

'I climax every 30 seconds': Woman's rare disorder sees her experience constant orgasms for up to eight hours a day
Rachel, from Atlanta, Georgia, suffers from persistent sexual arousal syndrome, which means she climaxes hundreds of times a day

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UPDATED:

18:26 GMT, 27 September 2012

A woman who experiences multiple orgasms for up to eight hours a day has opened up for the first time about her rare condition.

Rachel, from Atlanta, Georgia, suffers from persistent sexual arousal syndrome, also known as persistent genital arousal disorder, which means she climaxes hundreds of times a day.

Speaking with her husband, John, she revealed that she was diagnosed with the disorder after the birth of her first child.

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Rare disorder: In the documentary 100 Orgasms A Day, Rachel explains that she must constantly exercise strict control over her body to prevent herself from climaxing

She explains in the documentary 100 Orgasms A Day, which aired in the UK on Pick TV last night, that she must exercise strict control over her body to prevent herself from climaxing.

'If I wasn’t controlling it, I don’t even know if I could put a number on
it. It would be in the hundreds,' she says.

'They come every 30 seconds for four to six [or] sometimes eight hours, and I'm sure that's well up in the hundreds – I'm not a math person, but I'm sure it's up there.

'If I had no self-control, no willpower, I don’t know that I would ever leave the house.'

'If I had no self-control, no willpower, I don't know that I would ever leave the house'

Even simple household tasks pose a hazard, she admits.

'The washing machine, for whatever reason, when it goes on the spin cycle I don't even like to touch it,' she tells the camera.

'The
vibrations have a tendency to trigger the persistant sexual arousal,
and it'll trigger an episode… I don't sit on it, for obvious reasons.
That, I think, would do me in.'

For John, there are both positive and negatives to being married to a woman with persistent sexual arousal syndrome.

Double-edged sword: For Rachel's husband John, there are both positive and negatives to being married to a woman with persistent sexual arousal syndrome

'I called it the Horny Toad Disease,' he said, referring to a frog found in America's Southwest.

'It does make for a fun time, because it's not every day that women are aggressive in that way, but
sometimes it is inopportune…

'It's a double-edged sword. You think you
want it, until you have got it.'

Being more sexually-charged than her husband has had an emotional impact on Rachel, too, who initially struggled when her husband refused sex.

'At first I took it so horribly,' she admitted. 'When you know that
there's a way to relieve it, and you don't have access to that way… I just let my emotions get the better of me.

'Sometimes I was in tears, I was like, “You don't really want me,” and
stuff like that. It was really hard to deal with.'

WHAT IS PERSISTENT SEXUAL AROUSAL SYNDROME A DOCTOR EXPLAINS

DR DAVID GOLDMEIER, an expert on sexual medicine at Imperial College in London says:

Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) is a newly recognised condition, where the sufferer complains of long periods of genital arousal that are not associated with sexual desire.

PGAD sufferers experience intrusive, unsolicited and spontaneous genital arousal that can be unrelenting. This arousal can persist for hours, days or even longer.

This can be highly distressing for a woman and despite attempts to relieve it with sexual activity or orgasm, this often doesn't help or can worsen the symptoms.

Tarlov cysts are small jelly like cysts that form around the sacral area of the spine. They are a common finding in normal people. One current research paper suggests that a lot of women who have PGAD have Tarlov cysts, but this is contentious.

Spontaneous genital arousal is quite common but it's those women who can't control the arousal which is uncommon.

I see around 20 women a year with this condition, it may be as common as one in 100 we just don't know.

Sometimes it may resolve on its own, there is no cure but there are a number of ways to manage the symptoms such as meditation and pelvic floor exercises along with pain medication for the patient.